KARACHI – Institute of Business Management (IoBM) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a leading pharmaceutical company to enhance the collaboration with the local industrial and pharmaceutical sector. It will enable its students to acquire hands-on training in the areas of marketing, finance, sales, and business development among others. On behalf of IoBM, the MoU was signed by Institute’s President Talib Syed Karim while Haroon Qassim, Managing Director of the pharmaceutical firm, PharmEvo (Pvt.) Ltd signed the memorandum of understanding at IoBM.
Speaking on the occasion, President IoBM said that academic institutions’ collaboration with the corporate sector is increasing. This is beneficial for both academia and the corporate sector. The young graduates can apply their academic knowledge in the field and the corporate sector can capitalize on their innovative problem-solving skills. Talib Syed Karim further said that IoBM students have so far completed 700 projects with 500 local companies and added that they recently signed an MoU with a local agri-tech company to work on food security in Pakistan. “With the local agri-tech company, we are now working on vertical farming worth 45 million rupees to create awareness on food security”.
He termed the agreement signed with PharmEvo as a welcoming step for the students and faculty of IoBM. Managing Director of PharmEvo, Haroon Qassim said that youngsters are well aware of social challenges and provide solutions to pertaining challenges. He added that “The collaboration between IoBM and PharmEvo would encourage other academic institutions and industries to boost their ties. There was a trust deficit between the industry and academia, which has reduced over the years.” On the occasion, he also announced to provide a reasonable stipend to students working with them on various projects. CEO of PharmEvo, Syed Jamshed Ahmed said that the development and progress of the Western world is based on the linkages between academia and the industry. He said that “If we can take benefit of the intellectual capital produced by our Universities and academic institutions, we can acquire tremendous achievements at our organizations but somehow this area has not been developed in Pakistan.” Ekhlaque Ahmed, Lead Capstone Projects, IoBM, Abdus Samad Siddiqui, Director Marketing and Sales, PharmEvo, among others also spoke on the occasion.
